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Someone bought a $100,000 Tesla with Bitcoins imo this is excellent. it is an alternative to the currency monopolies. how do you feel about bitcoin? would you accept it in lieu of a traditional paycheck?
http://money.cnn.com/2013...ce=cnn_bin
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The things you can buy with the digital currency Bitcoin continue to grow, from sandwiches to fine art -- and now expensive cars.A Florida man bought a Tesla Model S from a Lamborghini dealership in Newport Beach, Calif., this week. It was the first time the dealer had accepted Bitcoin, it said. "That's right, an electronic currency was used to purchase a fully electric vehicle," the dealer's blog stated. The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the top-of-the-line Tesla (TSLA) for $103,000, which was equivalent to 91.4 Bitcoins on Tuesday, the day of the sale, said Cedric Davy, marketing director at the dealership. The sale came about after the man contacted the dealership on Monday asking if he could use Bitcoin to pay for the Tesla, explaining that he had been turned down by other sellers, Davy said. "We had heard about it before, but we weren't extremely familiar, so we basically did our homework and looked for ways for us to convert it into dollars," he said. After checking into any legal issues and other research, the dealership worked with Bitcoin payment processor BitPay to handle the transaction. Timing was on the buyer's side. The digital currency, known for its wide price swings, dropped sharply in value on Friday, just days after the purchase. 8 things you can buy with bitcoins right now But the dealer didn't need to worry about the risks associated with the volatile currency. BitPay locked in Tuesday's Bitcoin price for both the buyer and the dealership, Davy said. "We're not in the business of speculating so at the end of the day we want to sell the car as priced," he said.  After news broke of the sale, the dealer fielded about 10 phone calls from more car shoppers interested in purchasing a car using the digital currency, Davy said. "All these people have Bitcoins," he said. "I think some people are trying to spend it." Most Teslas are sold online directly to customers by the company. Even in Tesla-owned and -run stores, the transaction is conducted online. Tesla has been fighting in several states in order to sell its cars directly to consumers from coast to coast. In fact, Tesla head Elon Musk came to fame (and riches) as a co-founder of PayPal, a leading digital payment service. Tesla declined to comment on whether or not the company plans to accept Bitcoin as payment anytime soon. | |
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somebody better post on this thread or else | |
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This story, much like many other stories, turned out to be mostly bogus.
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The internet is full of too good to be true (or too crazy to be true) stories more often than not. | |
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watching bitcoin develop fascinates me. i think (hope) that over the next few years we will see different types of currencies emerging.
10 hr ago By Associated Press LAS VEGAS — A casino owner-turned-commercial developer is asking $7.85 million to sell a Las Vegas home, and he's willing to accept the online currency bitcoin for the deal. Jack Sommer said he got the idea to seek bitcoin for his 25,000-square-foot mansion from two of his sons, who've been involved in making and trading the currency. "The advantage is that we're expanding our market and adding some notoriety," Sommer said. Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading began in 2009. Value is purchased through an exchange website with a mainstream paper currency, such as dollars or euros, though trading isn't government-regulated. Using the currency can streamline international business deals, said Julian Tosh, a consultant and owner of the marketplace website bitcoinsinvegas.com. "There are a bunch of people who have bitcoins, and they're dying for a place to spend it," Tosh told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He said Sommer's willingness to accept bitcoin could open the home to a global audience. "If you increase awareness of potential buyers, you could tap into new markets," Tosh said. Sommer has put a lot of work into the home in the posh Spanish Trail Country Club. It features marble from China, Iceland and Brazil, a full basement, staff quarters with Jacuzzis, and a secret garden. It also has 39 air conditioning zones fed from a 120-ton cooling tower. Library shelves are stainless steel clad in American cherry wood, and the view from the owner's suite is of golf course fairways. Sommer once owned the Aladdin resort, which is now the Planet Hollywood Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The great room of Jack and Laura Sommer's Las Vegas home, for sale for $7.85 million in bitcoin, is seen on Thursday, Dec. 12. He said he and his wife, Laura, considered the additions they've made to the home "an exercise in how many cool details we could put in." He said they were downsizing now that their seven children have grown and moved out. Sommer's sales agent, Craig Tann, of Prudential American Group's Estates of Las Vegas team, said the home may be the first in southern Nevada to be marketed formally around bitcoin. A range of businesses accept the currency. The currency hit a watermark when Bank of America Merrill Lynch said this month that one bitcoin could have a maximum value of $1,300, or more than the price of an ounce of gold. A bitcoin on Friday was valued at about $870, up from $10 in January. Tosh acknowledged the volatility in value could make a $7.85 million bitcoin trade risky. "Locking in a price for such a large transaction is going to be kind of difficult," he said. "If the value is changing 30 percent a day, how do you quantify that in a contract and expect each side to hold on for 30 to 90 days while escrow clears?"
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It is interesting indeed. 99% of my posts are ironic. Maybe this post sides with the other 1%. | |
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i was surprised that China has the most registered bitcoin users. i would not have guessed that.....
Bitcoin price plunges as China clampdown escalates8 hours agohttp://www.nbcnews.com...2D11765766
The price of bitcoin has plummeted by 50 percent since record highs in late November, with selling accelerating on Wednesday after reports that the People's Bank of China (PBoC) has ordered third-party payment providers to stop using the virtual currency.
The price of a bitcoin fell to below $600 after stabilizing near $800 for the last couple of weeks after a price slump from $1,200 in late November. At 8 a.m. London time on Wednesday the currency was trading at $555 on major exchange Mt Gox and $550 on CoinDesk's index, which measures a basket of prices around the world.
China's central bank has ordered third-party payment agencies - which provide clearing services for bitcoin exchanges - to stop any "custody, trading and other services" related to the virtual currency, according to a report Tuesday by Yicai.com. The Chinese website - which is affiliated with the China Business Network TV station - added that platforms were told to end working relationships with virtual currency exchanges before Chinese New Year which commences at the end of January.
Zhou Jinhuang, the deputy director of payment clearance at the People's Bank of China is reported to have chaired the closed-door meeting on Monday when more than 10 third-party payment platforms were given the news. Attendees included a representative from Alipay, which is China's leading third-party online payment solution, according to its website.
Video: CNBC's Mary Thompson reports on bitcoin's precipitous overnight drop. The digital currency fell nearly 50 percent from its high of $1,200 earlier this month.
BTC China, the world's largest bitcoin exchange, according to Bitcoinity.org, stopped accepting deposits in Chinese yuan on Wednesday due to the clampdown. Bobby Lee, the CEO of BTC China told CNBC that he had received notice from his third-party payment processor on Wednesday. "They essentially have cut us off from allowing customer deposits into BTC China's bitcoin exchange," he said. "Customers don't have to worry, the deposits are still here, the withdrawals will still be allowed. So there's no need to panic on that."
Lee added that he believes the recent clampdown is not due to government officials in the country fearing that bitcoin is helping customers to move yuan out of China. "Bitcoin exchanges are legal...so our business model is still valid but we're under some pressure in terms of being able to work with third-party payment companies. So we're looking for alternatives," he said. BTC China only deals with bitcoin yuan trades due to the strict currency controls in the country. Lee said that his company did not have any near-term plans to look at other currencies. Zennon Kapron, founder of Shanghai-based financial consultancy group Kapronasia, agrees with Lee that the clampdown wasn't necessarily due to fears of capital outflows.
"The wealthy in China have always found ways, ether legally or illegally, to move their money out of the country," he told CNBC via telephone. He said that hints from the central bank that bitcoin exchanges were still legal meant there were "mixed messages" from the government. Chinese curbs may have hit the price of bitcoin hard but Kapron believes that the U.S. still plays a major role in the industry and it remains to be seen how U.S. authorities will regulate the digital currency.
As well as the news from China, the U.S. Treasury Department also offered a warning on bitcoin on Wednesday. The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has sent "industry outreach" letters to about a dozen firms, according to Reuters, which highlights that businesses linked with bitcoin may have to comply with federal law and regulation as money transmitters. Bitcoin is a "virtual" currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services. While there is no central bank that issues them, bitcoins can be created online by using a computer to complete difficult tasks, a process known as mining. Some 12 million bitcoins are believed to be in circulation, with a cap of 21 million — meaning no more bitcoins can be created after that point.
The initial fall in price in early December coincided with a statement released on the website of China's central bank which warned of the risks that the crypto currency posed. It warned that Chinese financial institutions should not trade the digital currency saying that while it does not yet pose a threat to China's financial system, it carries risks.
Its surge to over $1,000 in November was attributed partly to increased interest from Chinese users as well as favorable comments by regulatory officials at a U.S. Senate hearing in November. Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder has been quoted as saying that the crypto currency shows "promise".
BTC China exchange is now believed to have the highest number of registered users and received $5 million in November from institutional investors Lightspeed China Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Chinese search engine Baidu announced in October that it had started to accept bitcoin for its security service. This came after Chinese state television company CCTV broadcast a documentary detailing the digital currency in the summer. Many analysts see that as a key point at which interest in bitcoin increased.
Downloads of bitcoin wallets surged in China in the days following the documentary, according to statistics from SourceForge, rising to second place in the global ranking behind the United States. Bitcoincharts.com has data that shows the Chinese yuan is the second most traded currency pair with bitcoin after the U.S. dollar. | |
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XxAxX said:
What is your obsession with this pic?  I have seen it at least 8 or 9 threads .Pistols sounded like "Fuck off," wheras The Clash sounded like "Fuck Off, but here's why.."- Thedigitialgardener
All music is shit music and no music is real- gunsnhalen Datdonkeydick- Asherfierce Gary Hunts Album Isn't That Good- Soulalive | |
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^ i just love that picture. she looks like she could be saying just about anything so I tried it on for size.
as far as bitcoin, i think this article is interesting. Overstock is positioning itself to avoid the 'bad currency wars' it sees coming in the future and advocates the use of alternate currency in order to shift the balance of power. i totally agree. but i think the feds are going to arrrive on the scene any moment now and smack it all down.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/20/technology/innovation/overstock-bitcoin/index.html?source=cnn_bin Online retailer Overstock to accept BitcoinDecember 20, 2013: 2:22 PM ET  Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is endorsing Bitcoin. His company is the first major U.S. retailer to do so. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Overstock.com will become the first major U.S. retailer to accept Bitcoin, the company's chief executive Patrick Byrne told CNNMoney Friday.Byrne said customers will be able to use the virtual currency to make purchases on Overstock.com (OSTK), which sells everything from digital cameras and bed sheets to patio furniture and even cars. The company is expected to have total revenue of $1.3 billion for 2013, according to FactSet Research. "We think there's going to be a market in Bitcoin, and we want to get in front of it," said Byrne. "We want to be the first major e-tailer that accepts them." Byrne first made comments about Overstock.com accepting Bitcoin in an interview with Bitcoin blog newsBTC and later in the Financial Times. Overstock plans to begin accepting Bitcoin near the end of the second quarter of 2014. Byrne said the move stems partly from his background in the Austrian School of economics, which is associated with the Libertarian party in the United States. "We're the guys who like gold," he said. "We think the monetary base should not be something that a government can create with a stroke of a pen." Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin is not backed by any government authority or central bank. It exists only on the internet and is "mined" by powerful computers that solve complex math puzzles. Byrne said he is concerned about the possibility of "bad currency wars" in the future. He said the U.S. dollar is already being undermined by the Federal Reserve's easy money policies and by overspending by politicians in Washington. Like gold, Byrne said Bitcoin should hold its value better than the dollar because it is "mathematically constrained" and cannot be manipulated by government authorities. There are currently 12.1 million bitcoins in circulation, according to blockchain.info. The total number of bitcoins is capped at 21 million. Critics say Bitcoin is at best a fad and at worst a haven for criminals looking to buy and sell illegal goods anonymously. But supporters argue that Bitcoin is a more democratic alternative to traditional currencies. Former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, an outspoken Libertarian from Texas, has said that Bitcoin could be the dollar's "destroyer" if it goes mainstream. Bitcoin has exploded in value this year, rising from about $13 in January to more than $1,200 earlier this month. On Friday, bitcoins were trading at about $739 on the Mt. Gox exchange. The currency is prone to wild swings and experts say Bitcoin will remain volatile as the technology evolves. Byrne acknowledged that the volatility is a problem and that Overstock will need to "continually convert Bitcoins into dollars" to avoid losing money. Eventually, he said there will be a derivatives market that will allow companies to hedge their exposure to Bitcoin. Related: Bitcoin worth almost as much as gold In some respects, it's not a surprise that Overstock would move to accept Bitcoin. The company is unconventional. It is known for quirky ads and for shortening its name online to O.co. Byrne also has a penchant for writing long, rambling shareholder letters in earnings reports. And he famously appeared on "60 Minutes" to complain about short sellers who were betting against his stock. He even told CNNMoney in 2003 that "When opportunities come along where we can knee the shorts in the groin, that's always good for fun and amusement. That's just icing on the cake." But Overstock is not the first business to embrace Bitcoin. British entrepreneur Richard Branson made a splash in November when he announced that his that his commercial space travel venture, Virgin Galactic, will allow customers to pay for their flights with Bitcoin. China's leading search engine Baidu (BIDU) also accepts Bitcoin for certain services. And a car dealer in California recently accepted Bitcoin as payment for a Tesla (TSLA) Model S, valued at $100,000. Bitcoin has been a particularly popular investment in China, but regulators have been cracking down. This week, China's largest bitcoin exchange, BTC China, abruptly stopped accepting new deposits. That came after China's central bank issued a warning and announced new rules for financial institutions dealing in bitcoins earlier this month. European Union officials have also warned about the risks of Bitcoin and may consider regulating the currency.
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